


begging you for mercy

by perculious



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M, Sexual Roleplay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-14
Updated: 2014-01-14
Packaged: 2018-01-08 18:52:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1136183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perculious/pseuds/perculious
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nagisa was learning to tell the difference between Rei hangups that were fine to blow past—ones where it was a good and positive for Rei to learn to loosen up—and Rei hangups where it was easier for Nagisa to work around them, and proper roleplay scenario prep was one of the latter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	begging you for mercy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [suitablyskippy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/suitablyskippy/gifts).



“Ryugazaki Rei.” Nagisa paused in his pacing, and angled a look right at Rei-chan. Nagisa’s hands were clasped behind his back, fingers intertwined. Rei was sitting on a wooden chair Nagisa had pulled into his bedroom, his wrists tied together with a purple scarf covered in big yellow stars. It was one of Nagisa’s favorites. Rei was clenching and flexing his fingers, a nervous gesture.

“I don’t think I have to tell you what you _did_.” Nagisa narrowed his eyes at Rei and crossed his arms, trying to seem as intimidating as possible. He certainly didn’t have to tell him, because he knew Rei had three pages of backstory in his pants pocket that Nagisa had typed up with him on one of the school computers. The first few times they’d tried this, Nagisa had waved away Rei’s protests of insufficient immersion as trivial, which led to a Rei-chan who was stiff and awkward, and whose response to “don’t worry about it, Rei-chan” or “just _Rei_ -lax, ahaha” was to tighten up like a violin string pulled tight by a tuning peg, until sex was impossible and they had to drop the whole thing. So. Nagisa was learning to tell the difference between Rei hangups that were fine to blow past—ones where it was good and positive for Rei to learn to loosen up—and Rei hangups where it was easier for Nagisa to work around them, and proper roleplay scenario prep was one of the latter.

Rei’s adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “I shouldn’t be here,” he said. “You’ve got the wrong man!”

"Nice try," Nagisa said. He crouched down and switched on the desk lamp that he'd carried over from his night stand. They didn't have anything to rest it on, so they'd just put it on the floor as close to the interrogation chair as the electrical cord would stretch, and pointed the bulb upward towards Rei's face. It didn’t really shine in Rei’s eyes as much as spotlight him from below, casting stark shadows across his face and bleaching out his complexion.

“Where were you the night of Tuesday last?” Nagisa said, squinting at Rei. The polyester costume shop police uniform they’d bought was a little itchy, and Nagisa surreptitiously scratched at his elbow.

Rei took a deep breath. “I went to the store,” he said. “To get some milk.” He paused, and then: “Because I’d wanted to make pancakes for —for my brother. Hikaru.” Nagisa had insisted on a girly name. “Hikaru loves pancakes, and his birthday is coming up—well _actually_ , his birthday was last week, but we _celebrate_ it on the sixteenth. It’s a funny story. It all goes back to when he was five, and our parents—”

Nagisa cleared his throat. Letting Rei overprepare had its downsides. “So you went to the store to get some milk,” he prompted. He put his fists on his hips. “Would that be the supermarket down near the cinema, Re—Ryugazaki?”

“Yes,” Rei said. His eyes were big and wide behind his glasses, and Nagisa could see just the faintest sheen of sweat on his temples, up by his hairline. It was probably because Nagisa was shining an incandescent lightbulb at his face, but it added to the atmosphere. Rei’s gorgeous eyes were even bigger without his glasses; maybe Nagisa could come up with an excuse to confiscate them for the good of the investigation. “I always go there, because my sister, Akari, works at the cinema. She is three years younger than me. Our relationship in our youth was marked by conflict, but in recent years—”

“Please try to stay on topic, Ryugazaki,” Nagisa said quickly. “This is an _extremely_ serious matter.”

“But I’m innocent, I’m telling you!” Rei rocked back and forth on his chair, pulling at his wrist restraints for effect, although he could probably have shaken the scarf off if he really wanted to. “You can’t prove anything!”

“We’ll see about that!” Nagisa put his hand on the top of Rei’s head, stopping him from moving, and tilted his head upward, so he was looking right into Nagisa’s eyes. Rei-chan was beautiful; Rei-chan would also freak out if Nagisa messed up his bangs, so Nagisa did, twisting his fingers through Rei’s hair. “I think I’m the serious scary cop in the room, so I’m the one who’s going to decide if you’re innocent or not, you filthy criminal. People like you make me sick.” 

Nagisa winked, and Rei frowned and shook his head minutely. Okay, fine, no breaking character. Geez, Rei-chan was picky. Nagisa gave his head one last little pat, and then crossed his arms again. Sure enough, Rei made a little twisty head movement, like he was trying to make his bangs fall back into place. Nagisa tamped down the giggle that threatened to bubble up his airway.

“So you went to the store,” Nagisa said. “Tell me, coming from the cinema, did you have to cross the street?”

“Of course,” Rei said. “Any cursory knowledge of the layout of the downtown area should make it obvious that—”

“And _when_ you did,” Nagisa said, drawing his eyebrows down to make the meanest face he knew how to make, “did you wait for the light?”

There was just the slightest hesitation before Rei said: “Of course I did. I am a law-abiding citizen. Anyone could tell you that.” He blinked nervously.

“Aha!” Nagisa pointed his index finger right at Rei’s face, which only caused his blinking rate to accelerate. “We have an eyewitness who claims that you _didn’t_ —that you just strolled across the street like it was nothing, barely even looking for cars! Which is against the law, _Ryugazaki_!”

“A filthy lie!” Rei burst out. “I have character witnesses—people who’ve known me my whole life—people who can attest to my constant and deliberate adherence to the law! The merest thought of jaywalking would never even cross my mind!”

“That’s not what I’ve heard about you!” Nagisa said. He forced himself to keep his face serious like Haruka’s. Rei was so so good at this, he never started laughing or forgot what to say or skipped the whole build-up and went right for the kissing—which Nagisa knew not to do now. Because he’d done that last time when they were doing a doctor and nurse one, he’d just straddled Rei and started kissing him and Rei had pushed him away and complained that Nagisa’s character would in no way be attracted to him yet. “I’ve heard that you’re a jaywalker, Ryugazaki, that you jaywalk all day every day! A multiple offender. A criminal for life!” He used his outstretched index finger to poke Rei’s nose. “What do you have to say about that?”

“Preposterous!” Rei blustered. “Why, I wouldn’t know the first thing about jaywalking. I’ve never even studied the theory!”

“I’m afraid your story just isn’t good enough,” Nagisa said, dropping his arm and shaking his head sadly. “We’re going to have to lock you up and throw away the key.”

Rei let out a long sigh, and hung his head in dejection. “Well,” he said. “If I’m going to jail forever—at least I’m being sentenced by someone so beautiful.”

 _Fi-na-lly_ , they were getting to the good part. “What did you say?” Nagisa gasped.

Rei glanced up, barely raising his head. “Oh, please,” he said. “You are speaking to a scholar of aesthetics. Your flaxen hair, your gemstone eyes—you’re a vision.”

Nagisa preened, and he wasn’t even acting. “Okay, Ryugazaki,” he said. “I shouldn’t be doing this, buuuuut... Why don’t you at least finish your story?”

Rei took a deep breath.

“When I was a boy,” he said, “my father was a very strict man. Oh, the days I spent in our garden, looking at the high walls around our estate, asking and asking my parents when I might be able to venture out into the world—”

Nagisa’s mouth dropped open. This part was not in the backstory packet they’d come up with; Rei must have done some extra stuff on his own. Rei continued to speak, detailing his sheltered childhood with siblings Hikaru and Akari, which was disrupted by a high-stakes kidnapping by a gang of dangerous jewel thieves who used Rei to demand a ransom from his rich business tycoon father. As he spoke, he grew more and more excited, his voice rising from his usual even tone to heights of passion usually reserved for arguments Nagisa had specifically provoked him into.

“Which only strengthened the restrictions they placed upon me,” Rei said, sighing deeply. Nagisa placed a hand over his mouth, his gaze transfixed on Rei-chan.

“Forever walking within the lines, my creativity stifled—” Rei continued, his forehead creasing. “I was but a shell of a boy, for can it be truly called a _life_ that which doesn’t contain the thrill of risk and danger? All my life I have abided precisely by the regulations, coloring within the lines, wearing swim suits that were constructed for practicality and not maximum aesthetic value—until one day, coming home from visiting my sister Akari at her after-school job working at the cinema, I chose to cross the street at an inopportune time. I chose to step out of the shadows and into the rays of the sun. I chose to live for just one moment, rather than rot forever in my protected shell. I chose, Hazuki-san... to fly.”

Rei fell silent and closed his eyes. 

“Oh, Ryugazaki,” Nagisa breathed. “I didn’t know.”

“How could you have known,” Rei said. Were his eyes shining with real tears, or was it merely the light of his feigned internal convictions? It was hard to say.

Nagisa tapped his finger against his chin, thinking through his next move. There was really nothing else for it.

“Okay,” he said. “I’m going to help you escape.”

Rei lifted his head, his eyes wide. “I wouldn’t ask you to do that,” he said. “You’d be risking your career!”

“I don’t care!” Nagisa declared. “It’s worth it. I can cover for you. You deserve to go and live your life.”

Rei shook his head. “No,” he said. “I wouldn’t be able to enjoy it knowing I was responsible for the downfall of a good man.”

“Ryugazaki.” Nagisa clapped his hands on Rei’s shoulders, and stared him straight in the eyes. “Don’t you see? This is _my_ moment to break the rules. You... You’re my mistimed street crossing.”

“Oh, Hazuki-san,” Rei said, “that was _beautiful_.” He glowed with pride.

Nagisa quickly untied the scarf around Rei’s wrists. He took a moment to massage them, although Rei had hardly been restrained for long, enjoying the feeling of Rei’s smooth skin against his fingertips. “Can you use your hands?”

“I think so,” Rei said, stretching his fingers and turning his wrists in circles. “How are we going to do this?”

“There are police officers all throughout this police station building,” Nagisa said urgently, thinking of his parents in the kitchen. “You’ll have to go through the window. There’s a tree right outside—it shouldn’t be too hard to climb down. I—” _I’ve done it_ , he was about to say, but that didn’t really make sense under the circumstances. “I’m sure you can do it.”

Rei looked uncertain, and Nagisa was fairly sure that was real Rei’s real hesitation crinkling up his forehead. “Ryugazaki.” Nagisa gripped Rei’s shoulders again, and leaned his face in very close. “No... _Rei-chan_. Isn’t this exactly the kind of thing your parents would disapprove of?”

Nagisa could see Rei wavering—he opened his mouth as if to speak, and then closed it— but he knew he’d won. Rei-chan would never dare to break character.

“You’re right,” Rei said. He hunched up his shoulders under Nagisa’s grasp, and puffed out his chest. “I must do it.”

Nagisa led Rei to the window, his heart pounding as if this were a real prison escape. Rei swung his leg over the windowsill, and then looked at Nagisa helplessly. “What do I do?”

Rei-chan was a lot taller than him; now that they were here it seemed improbable that Rei could manage to grab the tree’s upper branch while fitting all his gangly limbs through the window, and get his feet onto the branch below. Nagisa paused. “Just, uhhh, you just kind of go through—you just have to get over there, see?”

“N—Hazuki-san,” Rei said, his grip tightening on the window sill. “I would appreciate it if you explained to me the exact steps necessary to get from this window to the ground before I try to ‘go through’ anything.”

Rei was so fussy sometimes. “Okay, fine, you just have to put your hands around that branch _there_ and put your feet on that branch below—see, there’s a little dip right by the trunk where you can put your foot? And you just keep hold of this branch to stabilize yourself. And then from there you can just jump down.”

Rei studied his route, and nodded. “Alright,” he said, and swung himself with one fluid movement through the window, landing neatly exactly where Nagisa had pointed. Nagisa felt a little faint; sometimes he forgot how gracefully Rei-chan could move, and when he was reminded, he wanted to throw himself on Rei like he never had before. Rei turned back toward the window. Although he was gripping the tree, his height meant that his face was still around the level of the windowsill.

“How can I ever repay you, Hazuki-san?” he said.

Nagisa reached down to cup Rei’s face in his hands and leaned over to kiss him full on the mouth. Rei kissed him back instantly, leaning in despite his grip on the tree, and Nagisa was absolutely dizzy with affection. He felt like Juliet on her balcony, and Rei-chan was his big romantic hero, willing to climb a tree for him in the dead of night. When they pulled apart, Nagisa’s pulse was racing, and he pushed back the impulse to vault through the window and join Rei in his life on the run from the law. After all, Rei-chan would need someone at the police station to cover for him so he’d have enough time to escape.

“I’ll never forget you, Rei-chan,” Nagisa said.

“I’ll never forget you either,” Rei said softly, the flush on his cheeks visible in the moonlight.

“The best way you can repay me,” Nagisa said in his most serious voice, “is to live your life, Rei-chan. Go... and be free.”

Rei dropped one hand from the branch to blow Nagisa a kiss, and then dropped his gaze and began to shimmy down the tree. Nagisa closed the window and let himself fall back on his bed. He pressed a hand to his chest, right over his full, beating heart, and let out a dreamy sigh. How _romantic_.

He spent the next five minutes internally replaying every second of their dramatic goodbye kiss, before it occurred to him that Rei-chan was gone and they hadn’t managed to actually... like... do anything.

-

Rei stood on Nagisa’s front lawn, looking up at Nagisa’s lit window. Nagisa-kun didn’t seem to be coming back. Which was absolutely correct, of course. After such a beautiful goodbye, to ruin the moment now would be crass.

Rei fidgeted slightly, shoving his hands into his pockets. His wallet was in his pocket, but his bag with his phone was up in Nagisa’s room... Hmm. Rei considered the options. There was no way he could get back into Nagisa’s house without entering through the front door and attracting the attention of his parents. They would probably be interested to know how and why Rei was entering their house again after just coming over an hour ago. Well...

It had been a truly beautiful moment, but if Rei was being fully objective in assessing the situation, this was not exactly how he expected the night to go. He hunched his shoulders against the rising chill, and slowly turned from the house to go home.


End file.
